Chinese eSports organisation Team DK shuts down

One of the largest multi-discipline eSports organisations in China closed its doors yesterday as Team DK chose to disband all its squads.

The Chinese organisation, which had premier teams in Dota 2, League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm made the announcement via social media site Weibo.

In the statement, CEO Teng “Andy” Zhao said: “The gross overinflation of prices has made this industry more and more exaggerated, it really makes us sad. With the creation of all these streaming platforms, the value ascribed to the players exploded, to an unbelievable point.”

Team DK, created in 2010 and with international appearances as late as last week with the Heroes of the Storm team’s challenging run through BlizzCon, has been a South-East Asian staple at many of the biggest tournaments.

However, according to Zhao, institutional problems in China prevented the team achieving all that they hoped for while creating issues for management as well.

“This industry is in an era of wolves leading the charges, with the tigers not far behind,” he said. “The teams always seem to be in the weaker position. From macro conditions, to malicious competition between teams, to players retiring and unretiring, to broken promises… whenever a conflict arises between the team and the players, it always seem like it’s the team’s problem.”

The current HotS squad appears to be staying together to find a new sponsor, while Dota and LoL teams’ fates are uncertain.